GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H WiFi & GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard Reviews

Intel Z77 Express Chipset Heads into the Wild

Well it’s official, the Intel Z77 chipset is now out in the wild. Though we have been seeing leaks and previews for some time now, so there really isn’t anything left to reveal. The biggest news with the Intel Z77 chipset is the addition of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to the chipset. On the previous iterations of the Intel LGA1155 socket motherboard manufacturers had to rely on third party controllers. It seemed that everybody opted to use a different SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controller which gave us a significant amount of performance variation between the boards, at least in terms of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance. It’s going to be interesting to see how well the Intel SuperSpeed USB 3.0 controller stacks up against some of the other controllers that we have looked at in the past.

Today we will be looking at two of the Intel Z77 offerings from a little company that you may have heard of, GIGABYTE has sent us the Z77X-UD5H WiFi and the Z77X-UD3H. Each of these boards is part of a very deep Intel Z77 product. The two GIGABYTE motherboards have a few differences that separates them from each other, though the primary difference is the addition of the Bluetooth 4.0 + WiFi card with the GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WiFi.

Click image for Intel Z68 block Diagram

Looking at the block diagrams for Intel Z77 chipset and the Intel Z68 chipset, there are definitely a few differences worth mentioning. First off, is the support of PCI Express 3.0. PCIe Gen 3 became supported by some motherboard manufacturers late in the game, but it wasn’t officially supported by the earlier chipsets like Intel Z68 or Intel P67. If you are planning on running a tri-GPU set up, the Intel Z77 express chipset will be limited to a configuration of x8/x4/x4. The good news about that configuration is that having a PCIe x4 Gen 3 is the equivalent to a PCIe x8 Gen 2, just make sure that the graphics card that you plan to use is PCIe Gen 3.0 capable. Natively the Intel Z68 and Intel P67 chipset only supported memory up to 1333MHz, the new Intel Ivy Bridge platform will now support DDR3 1600MHz. Granted, we have never had an issue running our test bench with our Corsair vengeance 1600MHz memory since all of the motherboard manufacturers have supplied their boards with additional memory dividers. Potentially the biggest addition to the chipset is the addition of SuperSpeed USB 3.0. We can see in the above block diagram that Intel is still supporting up to 14 USB ports, though now four of them are SuperSpeed USB 3.0!

As mentioned above one of the defining features of the GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WiFi is the inclusion of the Bluetooth 4.0 + WiFi module. The GC-WB300D features the latest standards in wireless connectivity including Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 A/B/G/N WiFi connectivity. If you have a device like the Apple iPhone 4S that will take advantage of Smart Ready technology the GC-WB300D will happily use that technology with it.

The GIGABYTE 3D Power utilizes a brand new digital PWM controller that features precise auto voltage compensation. The auto voltage compensation will deliver steady power flow to the memory and CPU, no matter what kind of load is placed on the hardware.With the new 3D Power technology comes a few new features! The digital memory control lets the user monitor power and current in real time while playing your favorite game, sitting idly by, or pushing the limits of your system while overclocking! We also have the ability to protect our memory with OVP (Over Voltage Protection), adjust memory LLC (load-line calibration), and adjust the memory PWM frequency on the fly.

GIGABYTE 3D Power isn’t only available through the GIGABYTE 3D BIOS. GIGABYTE also has a handy little piece of software that can be run right in Windows. Above you can see the main screen from the utility, through it you can access the voltage, frequency and phase control. Don’t confuse these with the settings for the system voltages and frequencies. Those can be access through the GIGABYTE Easy tune software. These settings are strictly for the 3D Power settings.

We first saw the GIGABYTE 3D BIOS when we looked at the GIGABYTE X79-UD7. When we first used the 3D BIOS with the X79-UD7, we weren’t to horribly impressed. We had some issues with the Razor Copperhead mouse that we use on the test bench, at first it didn’t work at all, once we updated to a later BIOS, the cursor didn’t track in the right direction. If we moved the mouse up, it went down, left and it went right. It was a bit of a nightmare, so we pretty much used the keyboard to navigate the BIOS. This time around let’s hope that we don’t have the same issues, though GIGABYTE is pretty good about getting fixes for little things like that.

GIGABYTE has employed a new manufacturing process in to their motherboards. Glass Fabric PCB technology produces a tighter weave of the material used to make the PCB, this aids in preventing moisture from absorbing into the motherboard during damp and humid conditions. This will help prevent short circuits and other problems caused by moisture. This is part of the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 4 technology.

GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory * Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB. Dual channel memory architecture Support for DDR3 2666(OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules Support for non-ECC memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot. * The PCI Express x16 slot supports up to PCI Express 2.0 standard when an Intel 32nm (Sandy Bridge) CPU is installed. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) * The PCIEX4 slot is available only when an Intel 22nm CPU is installed. * The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX8 and PCIEX16 slots. When the PCIEX4 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 will operate at up to x4 mode. (The PCIEX16, PCIEX8 and PCIEX4 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) 3 x PCI Express x1 slots (All PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.) 1 x PCI slot

2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices 1 x mSATA connector * The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 * When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.

2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices 1 x mSATA connector * The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 * When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.

Marvell 88SE9172 chip:

2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

USB

GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WiFi

Chipset:

Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB headers) Up to 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

Chipset + 2 VIA VL810 Hubs:

Up to 8 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers) * In Windows XP, the Intel USB 3.0 ports and VIA VL810 HUB can support up to USB 2.0 transfer speed. * Due to a Windows 7 limitation, please connect your USB device(s) to the USB 2.0/1.1 port(s) before the Intel USB 3.0 controller driver is installed.

GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H

Chipset:

Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header) * In Windows XP, the Intel USB 3.0 ports can support up to USB 2.0 transfer speed.
Up to 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (available through the internal USB headers)VIA VL800 chip:

Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel * Due to a Windows 7 limitation, please connect your USB device(s) to the Intel controlled USB port(s) (located below the RJ-45 LAN port) before the VIA USB 3.0 controller driver is installed.

IEEE 1394

GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WiFi

VIA VT6308 chip:

Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 port on the back panel, 1 port available through the internal IEEE 1394a header)

Support for @BIOS Support for Q-Flash Support for Xpress Install Support for Xpress Recovery2 Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D) Support for Auto Green Support for ON/OFF Charge Support for Q-Share Support for 3D Power Support for LAN Optimizer (Intelligent optimization network management tool)